Arena PvP system
Overview Arenas are areas in which teams of players can compete against each other in deathmatch-style PvP. Instead of participating in objective-based PvP, these contests will center around your team's ability to obliterate the other team. Blizzard has planned a system that matches teams of equal strength together to increase fairness and make advancement to the highest tiers more difficult and more rewarding. The arena allows for 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5, but your team may have up to double the amount required for one fight (a 2v2 team can have four people in it). Unlike normal PvP, the arena also allows intra-faction competition. Only level 70 player characters can gain a Team Rating or Arena Points. Characters below level 70 can engage in practice matches. Teams require an Arena Team Charter in order to create an official team. Arena Points are used as the currency to purchase Arena Rewards, which are considered to be on par with some of the mid-to high level PvE rewards. Three Arenas are currently available: * The Ring of Trials in Nagrand * The Circle of Blood in Blade's Edge Mountains * The Ruins of Lordaeron in Tirisfal Glades (released in patch 2.1). Strategy The strategies used in arena PvP are quite different from those used in previous PvP. Most PvP objectives previously involved holding or running flags which favors teams having certain classes rather than a overall strategy. In arena PvP the goal is to kill your opponents and different class abilities come into play. Tactics and coordination is much more important in such an environment especially since you are facing both horde and alliance teams in the arena. Types Players can participate in the Arena in two ways. The type you wish to participate in is selected when speaking to the Arena Battlemaster. Skirmish All players of any level can participate in a skirmish battle. It is identical to the Rated Match, however no Team Ratings or Arena Points are assigned. Rated Match Players who are at least level 70 and on an Arena Team (created with an Arena Team Charter) may participate in a Rated Match. After the match, each team has its Team Rating adjusted accordingly (See below for details on Team Rating Calculations). Gameplay Pre-Match Upon zoning into the Arena instance, players start in a "holding area", health, mana, and energy are all restored, all buffs, conjured items are removed and pets are dismissed. (Debuffs will remain, and pets can be resummoned once you zone in.) Players are also given the Arena Preparation buff, which removes the casting cost of all abilities (including Soul Shards). After 60 seconds of preparation, the match commences! The Fight Players battle it out until all the members of one team are defeated. Abilities with a cooldown longer than 15 minutes cannot be used during Arena combat (including Rebirth). Conjured consumables and bandages may be used. Other consumables may not. Once a player dies, they can choose to release and observe the remainder of the match as a ghost. Post-Match Much like the Battlegrounds, after a match is completed a statistics window is shown that displays total damage and healing done. The Arena window also shows the Team Rating adjustment as a result of the match. Arena rating system Arena rating calculation of each match is base on Elo Rating System which is use by international chess rating system. The ELO system takes the score of two opponents and calculates a statistical chance of winning based off those scores. After the match it uses the difference between the calculated chance of winning and the actual results. The difference between the two probabilities is then applied to the maximum amount of points allowed per match. Having a maximum amount makes sure teams have to play a large number of matches instead of just getting lucky and beating one team with a high ranking score. Example of a match rating calculation: :Team A's Current Score: 1500pt :Team B's Current Score: 1580pt :Team A's Chance of Winning: 1500 / 1+10e((1500 + 1580)/400) = 0.38686 :Team B's Chance of Winning: 1580 / 1+10e((1500 + 1580)/400) = 0.61314 :Now Let's say Team A won the battle then :Team A's New Score: 1500 + 32*(1 - 0.38686) = 1500 + 19.62 = 1519.62 :Team B's New Score: 1580 + 32*(0 - 0.61314) = 1580 + (-19.62) = 1560.38 :Now Let's say Team B won the battle then :Team A's New Score: 1500 + 32*(0 - 0.38686) = 1500 + (-12.38) = 1487.62 :Team B's New Score: 1580 + 32*(1 - 0.61314) = 1580 + 12.38 = 1612.38 The K value use by Blizzard is 32. So each match the maximum rating gain/loss will be 32pts. And if you play with a team with same rating, you will gain/loss exactly 16pts. As you can see when a team with a higher ranking score wins a match against a lower ranking team they receive fewer points than if the lower rank team won. Arena Point Calculation "The transformation from your Team Rating to Arena Points starts off as a linear function, but once you go beyond a certain rating threshold, the function becomes logarithmic. This means that you will see a significant payoff increase once your Team Rating goes beyond a certain point, but the high-end spectrum of the ratings will eventually notice a decrease in how much bang they get for their buck."http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/arena/ You can stockpile a maximum of 5,000 Arena Points. Formulae On 26 September 2007, the formulae used to calculate Arena Points were changed, as outlined on the official site about WoW arena's. http://www.wowarmory.com/arena-calculator.xml Penalties: :2v2 teams earn 76% of the points of a 5v5 team with the same rating :3v3 teams earn 88% of the points of a 5v5 team with the same rating Pay out requirements To be awarded any points on Tuesday morning (i.e. Monday at midnight) on US servers or Wednesday morning (i.e. Tuesday night at midnight) for EU servers, your team needs to have fought a minimum of ten matches that week and a player must have been in at least 30% of all your matches to be eligible for that week's points (i.e. it is possible to fight only 5 matches and get points - if your team did 10 matches without you) http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/arena/ Arena Point Calculators Several Arena Point Calculators have been created by members of the WoW Community. Rewards Equipment Arena Rewards include both class-specific armor sets and a selection of unique weapons, off-hands and relics. All Arena Rewards cost only Arena Points to obtain. See Arena Rewards for a full list of current and past Seasonal Arena Rewards. Titles At the end of each Arena season, members who have been in at least 20% of a top Arena team's matches, in each Battlegroup, will receive a title according to their standing (highest to lowest): * Gladiator title also grants a Swift Nether Drake. This page shows all available Titles. An estimation of the ranking needed for each title can be found at http://www.arenajunkies.com/calculator/ Seasons The seasons are used to determined the winners of Arena Titles and the armored Swift Nether Drake. Players who are in any of the top teams have to be in 20% of all the arena team's fights to gain their Title or Armored Netherdrake. At the end of the Season teams are reset back to having a Team Rating of 1500, but they get to keep their Arena Points. Seasons are back-to-back meaning that when the season ends, the next begins. Season 2 introduces new Arena Gear as well, though the previous Season's gear will be available for lowered costs. (post) Current Seasons Season 2 is currently active. Season 3 will start on November 27, two weeks after the release of Patch 2.3. Ended Seasons Season 1 ended on June 19th 2007, coinciding with Patch 2.1.2. Sources * Arena at the official site. * The Arena Rating System by Relmstein * WoW BlueTracker **http://blue.cardplace.com/cache/wow-general/9552122.htm **http://blue.cardplace.com/newcache/us/77778614.htm **http://blue.cardplace.com/newcache/en/54015636.htm External links Category:Arena PvP